In each district there is a District Attorney, whose duty it is to prosecute all offences against the laws of the United States; such, for instance, as piracy, which is robbery upon the high seas; or smuggling goods; that is, bringing them into the country with a view to avoid paying duties. The District Attorney also manages all cases in which the United States are a party.

In each district is a Marshal, who performs the duties of a sheriff; that is, he attends the court of the district, and executes the precepts directed to him. He keeps persons accused of crimes in custody, and when required, brings them before the court; he also executes sentence upon criminals, and in general, is the executive officer of the

court.

Each district has a place where the court sits and where its records are kept; and here a clerk attends to the business of the office. It is in these offices that the titles of books are deposited, upon which authors desire to obtain copyright. The clerk issues certificates that such titles are deposited; and when his book is published, the author leaves a copy at the clerk's office; his copyright is then complete; and he only, and those whom he may authorize, have a right to print or publish it.

The salary of the chief justice is five thousand dollars a year: each of the associate judges has four thousand five hundred dollars; the district judges receive from one thousand to three thousand dollars a year.

Among the eminent men who have held the office of chief justice of the United States Court, are Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, who died in 1807, and John Marshall, who died in 1838.

CHAPTER LXIV.

State Governments.

We have now taken a brief view of the national government: that government which binds twentysix separate states or republics, into one great federal republic. Let us now take a survey of the several states, which are at present twenty-six in number.

Each of the states has a written constitution; some of these were adopted during the revolutionary struggle, and have since been revised, remoddled or amended. Others have been made anew, at later periods. Rhode Island is the only state which retains its colonial charter. Efforts are now making in this state for the adoption of a new constitution, which are likely to prove successful.

Several of the state constitutions consist of two parts, first a bill of rights, setting forth certain abstract principles of government and law; and second, a series of rules for the organization and administration of the government.

All these constitutions prescribe a republican form of government; that is, a government in which the people choose certain officers to represent them, and act for them in public affairs.

In all the state constitutions, provision is made for keeping the three powers-legislative, executive, and judicial-distinct and separate.

In every state there is a Governor, and in most a Lieutenant Governor. The Governor constitutes the executive branch, being assisted in some cases by an executive council. He is generally the

commander-in-chief of the state militia; appoints and commissions various officers, and has a general superintendence of public affairs.

In most of the states the Governor is elected for a single year. In some instances, he is elected for a longer time, as in New York, North Carolina, Georgia, and some others, for two years; Pennsylvania, Virginia, Indiana, for three years; Delaware, Louisiana, Arkansas, for four years. None are elected for a longer term than the last period. In some states the Governor is elected by the legislature, but in most instances by the people.

In all cases the legislature consists of two branches, a House of Representatives and a Senate. No bill can become a law unless sanctioned by both houses. The Governor has also a veto in most cases.

The legislatures of the several states usually meet once a year. In some cases, however, their sessions are held but once in two years. The qualifications required for members of the legislature, are various. In a majority of states, citizenship, possession of a certain amount of real estate, and being over twenty-five years of age, are requisites.

The Judiciary of the several states consists of a superior court, and several inferior courts, arranged somewhat after the model of the United States' courts. The judges are generally appointed by the legislature, in some instances annually, in others for a term of years, and in others during good behavior.

All the states are divided into counties. In each county there is a court-house where courts are held, and where various records are kept. Each

court has a clerk to record its proceedings, and a sheriff or other officer to execute its precepts. There are also county and state prisons for the confinement of those who are under arrest, or who are convicted of crimes and misdemeanors.

CHAPTER LXV.

Punishments.

IN barbarous ages, especially in despotic countries, the punishments for offences against the state have always been numerous and cruel. Torture and death have been inflicted in thousands of cases, not only for such high offences as treason, robbery and murder, but for more trivial misdemeanors, and even for holding particular religious opinions, and those which are now regarded as right by a large part of the Christian world.

Even in England, where the criminal code has been softened with the progress of civilization, down to a recent period the laws made about two hundred offences capital crimes; that is, punishable with death. A change has very lately taken place, and the number of capital offences now known to the English law, are only thirteen, among which are the following:

Treason; murder; attempt to murder, by administering poison; attempt to murder, by stabbing; piracy, attended by an attempt to murder; robbery, with an attempt to murder; burglary, (that is, breaking into a house between nine o'clock at night and six o'clock in the morning,)

with an attempt to murder; arson, that is, setting fire to a dwelling-house with any person therein; exhibiting any false light, with an intent to bring a vessel into danger; and every accessary before the fact, to any one of the above offences.

Most of these offences have been punished with death in this country; but there has been and still is a growing aversion to capital punishment. The belief extensively prevails, that a mild code is more effectual in checking crime, than a sanguinary one; and under the influence of these views, only a few of the more atrocious crimes are now punished, in this country, with death.

Imprisonment, with confinement to hard labor, and in some instances solitary confinement, are now the chief inflictions of the law for crimes against the public. Piracy, cognisable by the United States' courts, and murder by the state courts, are universally punished with death.

Imprisonment for debt, a common practice in most other countries, is nearly abolished in the states. If a person has no property, and will take oath to that effect, he can obtain his release from imprisonment for debt. This is a great mitigation. of former laws; for once a creditor could keep his debtor in prison as long as he pleased, even if he had not a farthing of property. The law gave the creditor entire power over the body of the debtor, and this is still the fact in some European countries.